Close Your Eyes
by PermeliaSong
Summary: Roxanne Weasley and Lysander Scamander's engagement party through the eyes of Theodore Remus Lupin.


Disclaimer: _I do not own the Harry Potter fandom or the characters, places, etc, J.K Rowling does. I do not make any money of this writing._

Summary: _Roxanne Weasley and Lysander Scamander's engagement party through the eyes of Theodore Remus Lupin._ _One-shot_. For **Morghen's **_Teddy Lupin && Roxanne Weasley Pairing Challenge_

Author Note: _Thanks to XHarryxGinnyxloveX for betaing._

_If I tell you I love you can I keep you forever?_ -Casper the Friendly Ghost

Close Your Eyes

The Burrow was in an uproar. Every single person imaginable was there, from Madame Maxime to Professor Slughorn. Molly Weasley, along with the help of a few of her daughter-in-laws were cooking in the kitchen, doing their best accommodate the large party. They would have gotten the food out faster if it hadn't been for Victoire throwing her usual temper tantrum. However no one seemed to be bothered by the lack of food just yet, for there was plenty of beer, butterbeer, and firewhiskey to go around and the feeling of love and friendship kept everyone full at the moment. The reason for the huge turnout was not to remember a lost loved one or cheer with joy over a birth of a new life but to celebrate the nuptials between Lysander Scamander and Roxanne Weasley. Everyone was excited about the wedding, everyone except the best man. Theodore Remus Lupin was sitting on the couch with a glass of butterbeer in his hand, next to Lorcan and Fred who were flirting with two girls that used to go to school with them. Usually it would have been amusing to see his two friends get turned down but today wasn't one of those days. He took a look around the living room; Hagrid and Slughorn who were both drunk—despite it being only thirty minutes into the party—had burst into song, which everyone slowly started to join in. Teddy shook his head at the two men. Although he felt that they were ridiculous at least they were having a good time, which was what Roxanne wanted. The thought of the beautiful girl made his eyes immediately scan for her. He found her sitting next to her soon-to-be husband who was in a deep conversation with Ron Weasley. Feeling eyes upon her, Roxanne turned quickly to see Teddy staring at her. She gave him a sweet smile which he didn't reciprocate. Instead he dropped his eyes and turned them back on his two friends. He went to take a sip of his drink and found it nearly gone, he sighed and stood up and head to the kitchen where the women were bustling about. They noticed him immediately when he walked in.

"Teddy, will you be a dear and go see if those godforsaken Gnomes are pecking around the garden again," Molly asked him kindly.

"Of course," he replied. He was thankful for something to do. He didn't want to sit around with a bunch of drunkards, crying women, babies, and a bunch of old people talking about the war.

"I'll go with you!" said a voice loudly behind him. He turned to see Roxanne standing there with a smile on her face.

"Err…that's okay I can do it alone," Teddy said, not bothering to meet her eyes.

"Yes, let him do it alone. You don't want to ruin your pretty dress," Roxanne's mother, Angelina, joined in.

Teddy looked over at her and gave her a soft smile, secretly thanking her. He ignored the disappointed look on Roxanne's face and turned on his heel before heading out the door towards the garden.

Teddy threw the last gnome over the hedge. He usually felt some joy in spinning the little ugly creature around and throwing it as far as possible. But he again felt nothing. He sighed and began to walk down towards the orchard that had hosted Bill and Fleur's wedding, and that would soon host Roxanne and Lysander's. The cool breeze tossed his brown hair, gently caressing it like a lover would do. He closed his eyes, pushing the tears which were trying to force themselves out, back. His heart ached; tomorrow at noon, the love of his life will be marrying his best friend. It sounded like the start of a bad Muggle romance movie, only this was real. He knew there wasn't going to be a surprise ending were she changed her mind and realized that the person she should be with was him. No, it wasn't like that at all. During the whole wedding process he had wished that she would realize that. Hell, he had been wishing it for a longtime before that. He had wished for a lot of things; he had wished that she still had a crush on him. He wished that Lysander and Roxanne had never met. He damn sure wished that Victoire had never encouraged Lysander to date her. Teddy sighed and opened his eyes.

"Admiring the view?" He jumped up at the sound of her voice. He cleared his throat and turned to her.

"What are you doing out here?" he asked. There was an underline of anger in his voice and she caught it.

"I could ask you the same thing," she replied, walking over to him.

"You know why I'm out here," he said sharply. "Why are you out here? Your mother told you not to come out."

Roxanne frowned at his tone of voice. "I know what my mother told me, _Theodore_. I came out anyway to help you with the gnomes." She only called him Theodore when she upset with him.

"Well, I took care of it already," he said irritably.

"Really?" she said, folding her arms defiantly. "Because when I came out here, I saw three of them running around—and don't worry about it _I_ took care of it."

"Yeah and you probably got your dress dirty," he said.

She stepped a little farther into the moonlight, and spun around, showing him that her dress was clean. He eyed her curvy body in the pale pink strapless dress. He shook his head and turned away from her, walking further down the orchard. He was stopped by her warm hand on his arm. He closed his eyes and sighed.

"Teddy, why are you so cross with me?" she asked softly. She was hurting, he could hear it in her voice and this made his heart ache more. He didn't want to be mean to her but it was the only way to keep her at a distance. Although he secretly didn't want to but he knew it had to be done to keep his sanity. She turned him around. "Look at me."

He obeyed and looked into her pleading brown eyes.

"Please tell me what I've done. I'll do anything to make you happy again," she said softly. He could see the tears forming in her eyes.

He was stunned; he had never seen Roxanne cry. It wasn't like her. This made everything ten times worse. He didn't want to hurt her. He cared about her. She was the person he could go to when he had something on his mind. She was his rock, his best friend, his confidante. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a tight hug. He loved the way her body felt against his. He rubbed her back as she nuzzled her face into his neck; her tears falling onto his shoulder. He pondered whether or not he should tell her that he loves her. But would that make a difference? Would she leave Lysander for him?

"You've been so sad for the longest time. Your hair doesn't even change color anymore. What's wrong?" Roxanne asked, her breath tickling his neck and making him shiver.

"I'm leaving after the wedding," he blurted out. She pulled away from his embrace, and looked at him.

"What? Where are you going?"

"I'm going to Australia. Some Aurors down there need to be trained and I volunteered to do it," Teddy explained. It wasn't a complete lie, they did need help in Australia but he hadn't volunteered—despite Harry's constant nagging. _I guess I have to now_, he thought to himself.

"Why, don't you like it here?" she asked.

He looked down at her and smiled slightly. "It's not that, it's just that there is more money for me down there." Again, it wasn't a complete lie.

"I want you to stay Teddy," Roxanne said, grabbing his shirt.

"I'll be back before you know it," he said, "Besides you'll be too busy on your honeymoon to even realize that I'm gone."

She gave him a forced smile."Promise you'll write to me every day."

He smiled at her. "I promise."

She stood up her tiptoes and gave him a friendly peck on the cheek that sparked something in his body, in his soul.

"We should get back," she said. She turned and began to walk back up towards the garden but stopped when she noticed that he wasn't following her. "Are you coming?"

"Not right now. I'm going to make sure everything's ready out here," He called back. She nodded and then proceeded towards the house.

When she was out of sight, he let the tears that he had fought to keep at bay fall.

"I love you, Roxanne."


End file.
